In a recent interview with BuzzFeed on January 7th, Planned Parenthood’s new president Leana Wen addressed other services Planned Parenthood provides and expressed how important these services are to her in the full repertoire of Planned Parenthood’s services. However, later she reassured the public this does not mean the organization is forgetting about abortion.
Wen stated, “The last thing I would want is people to get the impression that we are backing off of our core services. What we will always be here to do is provide abortion…”
Wen reinforced this feeling on Twitter, where she tweeted the following in response to Buzzfeed’s article, specifically the headline:
Wen’s admittance of what the core mission of Planned Parenthood truly is directly contradicts their own calculations of the percentages of services they provide. For years Planned Parenthood has stated abortion only accounts for 3% of their total services, which has long been disputed by conservative and pro-life groups across America.
Whether intentionally or not, Planned Parenthood’s new president has undermined the organization’s ability to rebut conservative and pro-life groups in the future, as their new president hammered home the understanding abortion is Planned Parenthood’s main focus.
This message from Planned Parenthood’s president herself is a call which all conservative pro-life groups should hear and take action on. Gone are the days when pro-abortion and Planned Parenthood supporters could refute arguments about how important abortion is to the organization by simply citing the 3% statistic, or non-abortion healthcare will never be Planned Parenthood’s main focus.
This is a call to continue the push to defund Planned Parenthood. Hundreds of pro-life clinics across the United States offer the same healthcare as Planned Parenthood, without any pressure to have an abortion, with many of these clinics being supported by pro-life groups. With Congress having the most abortion-supporters and sympathizers in recent history, it is more important than ever for the pro-life community to continue educating people on life in the womb and the harm abortion does to everyone affected by it.
Less pressure from lawmakers on Planned Parenthood means more pressure on us in the pro-life community to continue to make this movement a priority.
College student, sports lover, and most importantly: a defender of all human life, no matter where it is found.
